A MAN who failed to turn up for his trial in 2017 has received a suspended prison sentence after he admitted a charge of conspiracy to defraud.

James Challenger, 31, was involved in a £700,000 scam where people would be encouraged to advertise in a magazine which pretended to raise cash for emergency services.

Mold Crown Court heard he was responsible for writing some of the scripts used by staff to con people and he also trained others less experienced how to do it.

The company used in the plot – Shotton-based Emergency Support Services Ltd – would cold call businesses and say they were launching campaigns to raise awareness about issues including drug abuse, internet safety or child sex abuse for the police.

Lee Reynolds, prosecuting, said the company falsely claimed it worked on behalf of the police and other emergency services, falsely claimed it was a charitable organisation and falsely claimed a significant proportion of the money used by customers to buy adverts was donated to the emergency services.

Challenger, of The Quarter, Egerton Street in Chester, pleaded guilty to the conspiracy which ran from June 2011 and August 2013.

He was said to have moved to Manchester, was in a dark place, had cut himself off from Deeside and knew nothing of the proceedings until later, which he got in touch with his solicitors so that a warrant could be served on him.

Judge Niclas Parry told him he was clearly concerned about the outcome of the proceedings and rightly so.

It was a sophisticated conspiracy involving many offenders.

"There were big and small wheels within this cog," he said.

"You were by no means a small wheel."

The judge said a seventh of the advertising space sold had been sold by him and he had a role in ensuring others played their part.

Judge Parry said Challenger would be treated as a man of good character, and in order to ensure parity with others similarly involved, he would receive an 18 month prison sentence suspended for two years.

He was ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work and told to pay £3,000 costs.

The court heard the main man behind the conspiracy,William Stringfellow, 51, from Shotton, Flintshire, received four years after he was convicted of the conspiracy.

Others received suspended sentence in what Judge Parry described at the time as a "despicable" fraud conspiracy in taking advantage of people's generosity.

More than £712,000 had been paid by advertisers over a five year period but only £5,000 was paid to the emergency services, the court heard.